


Daughter of the Demon

by chickenfried



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Forced Marriage, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Suicide, mentions Nyssa/Sarah
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-30
Updated: 2015-12-30
Packaged: 2018-05-10 12:24:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5585248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chickenfried/pseuds/chickenfried
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nyssa and Oliver's wedding night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Daughter of the Demon

Al Sah-him leads Nyssa to his room, followed by Sarab, Talibah, Kalab, an entourage whose purpose she was unsure of. Al Sah-him had proven himself loyal, and that he had nothing to fear from her.

 

She had never understood the way Sarah felt regret until she watched her beloved take poison to escape her. She hadn't known it was something you felt in your heart, in your gut, in your teeth.

As a young girl Her father taught her pride. Pride in the legacy she was part of. Pride in her fighting skills. Pride in the justice she helped met out. Pride in being Warith al Ghul. Pride in in not breaking under fire, under sword, or under starvation. Pride was what made her stay.

Shame was something she learned with adulthood. Shame over her legacy, lost to a prophesy and a man that had been nothing six years ago. Shame over her independence, lost to her father, years before he turned her into nothing but a pawn. Shame over her failed betrayal, lost to her own lack of ingenuity. Shame at her powerlessness. Over her father, over Merlyn, over this outsider, and over death.

Nyssa didn't learn resentment from Ras al Ghul. She didn't know that fathers loved and protected and nurtured. She knew that they awed, were feared, and obeyed. Fear was what kept her alive.

Falling in love was what taught her resentment. With the man who smiled kindly and played games with her. When he left. With the girl who was so full of goodness that she laughed. When her father saw all the things Nyssa loved about her as a weakness.  When she left.  With her beloved's sister. When she thought of bittersweet fantasies of a life with Sarah outside of the league, ones she never knew enough to dream of before meeting Laurel.

She learned hatred on her own, before she knew there was a word for it.

 

Walking through the familiar corridors of her home since birth, only sound the light footsteps of Al Sah-him audible over the sound of the torches' flame, Nyssa feels nothing. The regret, resentment, and anger had left when, wearing her mother's necklace, hand over Al Sah-him, in front of her father and the people she was one day to lead, they were bonded. Maybe her emotions had gone past what she had the capacity to feel when she failed yet again to kill her greatest rival.

When they stop in front of Al Sah-him's door, Nyssa wonders if their followers are there to listen for the sounds of a wedding night. Perhaps she should be grateful to not feel.

Al Sah-him addresses them curtly. "Leave us."

They obey.

When they enter his chambers Al Sah-him closes the door gently and sits on the silk cover of the bed. He puts his face in his hands. And feeling rushes back through her veins, saturates her muscles.

This usurper who was given her place as heir, this fool who protected her beloved's killer, this man that stole Ta-er al-Safar away from her. He sits defeated as though he were the world's greatest martyr.

It's an old childhood companion, this feeling of hatred.

 

"I need to crash the plane."

Oliver Queen speaks the words to the palms of his hands. Nyssa grits her teeth together, digs her nails into her arms. If this fool hadn't thought so low of the league that they would kill an innocent girl, Sarah's murder would be avenged. There would be no threat to Starling City and Sarah's loved ones.

"You'd trust me with this, but not your sister?"

Oliver ignores her question. "Otherwise Starling- Sarah's family-"

"I would do it if only for the satisfaction of killing my father."

Malcolm Merlyn would not die by her hands. Al Sah-her. The name she gave him burns. A man who would betray his own daughter worse than Ras al Ghul. How he had fooled her as a child.

Nyssa feels gratitude toward Laurel for allowing one small piece of redemption. To train her beloved's sister to protect herself and follow in Sarah's footsteps. If not Thea, then Laurel would find justice done for Sarah's death.

"You know we'll go down with the plane."

Oliver looks up from his hands to say this, as if she has anything to live for, as if she would commiserate with him. Surprisingly, she feels no satisfaction that he will die with her. She wants to resent him happy, alive, and with the blonde Sarah had been fond of. Nyssa thinks of Laurel, so much like her sister and yet so different.

Nyssa swallows and meets her husband's eyes.

"I look forward to seeing Sarah once more."

 

_There is no vow more sacred, nor covenant more holy than the one between man and woman._

_With this ceremony, your souls are bound together, forever joined._

_You will never be free._

_You will always be held captive by your love for each other._

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know what you think! Also, any recommendations for Nyssa-centric fic?


End file.
